


Retrace

by the_empty_pen



Series: PHWEEK2020 [7]
Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Fluff, Gen, They reunite, and happiness, barely sadness for once, short mention of a character death, takes place right after retrace 104
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23734087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_empty_pen/pseuds/the_empty_pen
Summary: “Welcome back!”His one arm barely reaches around both of them, but he doesn’t care. They’re here.Alice and Oz are here, with him, in his arm, his friends, his family.
Relationships: Alice & Gilbert Nightray & Oz Vessalius
Series: PHWEEK2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700932
Kudos: 14





	Retrace

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so this is the last day! THanks a lot for sticking with me and reading.
> 
> For the free day I didn't have any ideas at first, but then I was like hmmmmmmmm gotta write what went down after retrace 104 so here we are :')) I reread like, half of chap104 for this (I'm gonna do a full reread in summer anyways, like every year, so I just sort of was like nah nah we will only see the full thing in summer for the feels) but shit, did I cry xDDD
> 
> so yeah, here's my take on their reunion ^o^

**Darkness falls, I’m calling for the dawn.**

“Welcome back!”

His one arm barely reaches around both of them, but he doesn’t care. They’re here.  
Alice and Oz are here, with him, in his arm, his friends, his family.  
He loves them so much that his heart breaks and for a moment he thinks that he could die now and he would die happy.  
It’s been a hundred years since he’s seen them, and their bodies are warm and alive and they’re both crying into his chest.

Oz wraps one of his arm around Gilbert’s back, his fingers are clinging to his suit desperately.  
All three of them are breaking apart in each other’s arms.

Gilbert doesn’t know how long they hold each other. Maybe a few minutes. Maybe an hour. And oh, his eyes are burning because of how much he’s crying. Vincent is gone. But Alice and Oz are here.  
He’ll follow Vincent soon enough.  
He’ll die in maybe one year, three years at most, but he’ll get to spend the time with the two people he loves the most.

“Gilbert”, Oz whispers after a while, his voice choked with tears, “let go, I think you’re strangling both of us…!”

Alice nods in agreement and Gilbert laughs, letting go of them. His entire body is trembling, his teeth are chattering because of all the emotions he’s feeling.  
There’s too many of them to count.  
He strokes both their tears away, to no avail; they’ll probably continue crying for another hour or something, just like that.

“How have you two been doing? Are you ok? How’s your life been? Do you have friends-“

“Gilbert, stop”, Oz is laughing, still holding his arms, Alice is holding the cloth that’s dangling down his other shoulder.  
He’s happy. It almost feels as if he’s becoming a Baskerville again, as if the golden lights of the abyss are entering his body again to tell him where he’s supposed to go.  
Where his life will lead him.  
What his fate is.

“We’re both fine, seaweed head”, Alice says and god, Gilbert has never been more glad about being insulted like that. He sobs.  
It’s perfect. They’re all together and it’s just like in old times. Nothing has changed between them.

“Your families? Are they ok? Are you happy?” No matter what he wants to do, Gilbert keeps remembering Zai and how he had rejected Oz when he was still a young boy, how he had broken a child to the point of Oz no longer living, but just existing. And Alice's parents had both long been dead - the man who had taken care of her despite her resembling his sisters, too.  
Oz shoots him a beaming smile and it’s an honest one, not a faked one. 

“Yes! I have a big sister and a little brother, Gilbert! At first I was really annoyed at having a little brother because I thought Mom and Dad weren’t paying attention to me anymore, but it’s fine! And Alice has been my neighbour for a few years, actually. But man, her twin is annoying, you have no idea! Oh, and we went to school together for some years, but Alice sucked so hard at math and literature that she had to repeat a year, so now I’m stuck in higher education while she’s still in middle school-“

“You shut up!”, Alice screamed, and back in the day Gilbert would have stopped that argument right here, but he was too happy to even consider doing that. Their bicker felt like coming home. It felt warm and comfortable and secure.

“At least I don’t fall for any girl in all my classes! It’s ridiculous with you! And then you keep coming to me when you’re heartbroken, expecting that I share my chocolate with you! Why would I do that? It’s your own fault, but _my_ chocolate!"

Gilbert continues sobbing and laughing, Oz and Alice both let out an exasperated sigh.   
Then they smile.

“It’s good to see you, Gilbert.”

Oz’s hands are wrapped around a cup of tea, Alice’s around a glass of juice and Gilbert is holding onto his coffee as if it could save him from all the things he’s about to tell.  
It’s been a hundred years since all of it happened, but the memories are as clear as day in his head, the memories of chains pulling his best friend into the Abyss, the memories of a young girl coming back with him.  
Sure, some of the images have gotten blurry, old, like photographs. Gilbert has forgotten expressions of his friends after a while, has gotten so used to silence that their voices were hard to remember.  
But now, everything is back. Because they're with him, once more.

“Gilbert”, Oz says again and hearing his name hurts and feels good at the same time, “Vincent… told us a lot. And… I didn’t remember all of what he said. But some things… I did remember. I just want to say… that… before you start telling us… I’m very, very thankful to you for so many things. Probably more than I know of. Thank you, Gilbert. Thank you for waiting.”

He’s sworn to himself that he wouldn’t cry, but tears spill out of Gilbert’s eyes almost like a waterfall and they don’t stop.

“Yes”, Alice agrees, “thank you, seaweed head. I remember your food being good.”

And he weeps, sniffs and grabs one of the tissues he’s placed onto the table just in case of this happening. He’s told the story a few times already. He’s not cried every time. But now that Oz and Alice were back, he knows he’s going to go through it again, as if he was living it, as if he twenty-four years old again.

“Thanks… both of you.”

He breaths in through his nose, then exhales a few times to calm himself.  
It was ok.  
He would _retrace_ everything.

“Someone once said that this place was engulfed in darkness. But that doesn’t mean that there was never any light.”


End file.
